Team Marky

Lord Azzy wrote:The task:
I want you to present to me a vision. A vision of what football really means to you. And to do that, I'm giving you £125m to spend.

With that £125m, I want you to buy a team of 18 footballers, using their TM values as of 25 January 2012 (prepare now but check the values don't go up when you submit). For this 18-man squad, I want you to provide a starting XI, and a briefing on how you want them to play. Not tactics as such, but I want you to inspire the players with a vision for how you want them to play the game.

Now, to help you, I am going to offer you the chance to purchase a manager. You can have another £25m for this - anything you don't spend can be put towards your squad purchases. The manager will be the person who will carry out your vision, who will put it into practice and get the players playing the way you want them to. Not to say that you're choosing the manager's vision of course, but if your vision is of lumping it to Andy Carroll, don't choose Wenger! Manager prices are as follows:

Pep Guardiola - £25m
Jose Mourinho - £25m
Sir Alex Ferguson - £25m
Roberto Mancini - £20m
Arsene Wenger - £20m
Guus Hiddink - £17.5m
Tito Vilanova - £17.5m
Jupp Heynckes - £16.5m
Andre Villas-Boas - £15m
Jürgen Klopp - £15m
Massimiliano Allegri - £15m
Marcelo Bielsa - £13.5m
David Moyes - £13.5m
Diego Simeone - £12.5m
Brendan Rogers - £12.5m
Antonio Conte - £12.5m
Manuel Pellegrini - £10m
Rafael Benítez - £10m
Michael Laudrup - £8m
Chris Hughton - £5m

I will be judging this task on three aspects:

1. The starting XI, including chemistry between players (ie, they have to complement your vision)
2. The substitutes, so you don't buy any old toot to make your first team look better
3. Your vision, including whether your manager is capable of carrying it off

The team with the best XI, subs and vision will win - the prize is still to be determined. Good luck one and all!

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